CHALLENGES FOR INTERNATIONAL STANDARDIZATION DURING THE NEXT DECADES WITH RESPECT TO THE AREAS OF NEW INNOVATIVE PRODUCTS AND FIRE SAFETY ENGINEERING

摘要

The current fire testing and classification system and corresponding tests is mainly based onrnprescriptive building fire codes. This has certain limitations resulting in restricting the possible use ofrnthese tests for performance-based design within fire safety engineering (FSE). It also restrictsrninnovation and cost-efficiency for companies supplying materials/components for buildings andrntransport systems. The growing use of performance-based fire engineering creates needs for educationrnin the area, and calls for the development of appropriate methods/tools to support that change. In thernbeginning fire safety engineering was mainly used for fire performance based design of buildings butrnrecently new areas such as marine transport have appeared as new applications for fire safetyrnengineering. So on one hand we have the increasing use of fire safety engineering. On the other handrnwe have the introduction of new innovative materials and products on the market. While techniquesrnfor fire engineering, many of them based on advanced modelling, are rather established for traditionalrnmaterials and products, it is necessary to investigate how these techniques can be used for newerrninnovative materials, how traditional fire tests can be used for these techniques and what the need forrnnew tests is. This will be one of the major challenges for future standardisation and is explained in thernpaper.rnDespite scattered efforts in Academia and Industry for progress in the area of fire propertiesrnsimulation, there is also still a strong lack of appropriately trained human resources to push thernresearch base in the field further and building the proper environment for shifting paradigms inrntechnological as well as regulatory terms. An example of such an initiative in Europe is given.